The present invention relates to container filling equipment for the food and beverage industry, and more particularly to an improved piston filler apparatus.
In the food industry, one of the most demanding requirements is cleanliness. Every nook and cranny of every piece of equipment which is exposed to food (and many which are not) must be thoroughly cleaned at regular and frequent intervals. With respect to conventional piston fillers, this usually requires the disassembly and subsequent reassembly of a large number of valve cocks, seals, the piston assemblies, etc., each time the apparatus is cleaned. This is obviously a time consuming operation which can significantly increase production costs. In addition, many piston fillers operate to meter the product to be dispensed utilizing the vacuum created by the movement of a piston out of its filler cylinder. Although this is satisfactory for most food products, there are some which are so dense or heavy (such as pet food or the like) that they do not readily flow into the cylinder, thus creating air voids and an under-filled container.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a piston filler apparatus which avoids the aforesaid cleaning problems, and which has an optional mode of operation for use with dense foods which does not rely on the use of a vacuum.
The virtue of the invention lies in its simplicity; having no complicated seals, no valves requiring disassembly for cleaning, a simple clean-in-place cycle, an optional dense-food cycle, and the like. This is in part accomplished by locating the filler pistons below the product-containing bowl and the valve actuating mechanism above the bowl.
These and other objects will become apparent to one skilled in the art upon a study of the following specification and by reference to the accompanying drawings.